Michael Moore Warns: Donald Trump Is ‘So Good at the Con’

When Donald Trump — a real estate mogul turned reality star who had never held elected office — announced his bid for president last June, much of the media treated him like a loudmouthed diversion. Almost a year later, he’s the presumptive Republican nominee for president, and filmmaker Michael Moore thinks it’s long past time to take him seriously.

“He’s going to walk back a lot of his crazy,” Moore said during a SiriusXM Town Hall hosted by Pete Dominick.

“Luckily, we’ve got the internet,” Dominick cracked, referring to Trump’s incendiary comments about women and Latinos.

“Well, yes, but then again, even when he just flips, it doesn’t matter,” said Moore, 62. “Isn’t that kind of the sad part of this? He is so good at the con. He is so good at this. He had a very popular television show. I don’t know why anybody didn’t think he was going to do well. People like that fake alpha-male thing of his.”

Moore, whose documentary “Where to Invade Next” examines the progressive politics and modern socialism of various countries, recalled meeting Trump, 69 at the time, on a talk show about 15 years ago, when “The Apprentice” star seemed nervous.

“He got there, and he found out I was the other guest, and he went to the producer, ‘What’s he gonna do to me? What’s he gonna say?’” Moore said. “The producer goes, ‘He’s really nervous about you. Can you, like, calm him down?’”

Then there’s the long-running joke about the size of Trump’s hands. Vanity Fair editor Graydon Carter famously called him a “short-fingered vulgarian” in the 1980s, while Trump has insisted on the campaign trail that they’re “normal.”

“I shook his hand …” Moore said.

“Tiny like a baby?” Dominick, 40, asked.

“Well, they just felt like a normal guy’s hands,” Moore said. “I mean, my position on shaking a guy’s hand is that size doesn’t matter.”

Moore’s full SiriusXM Town Hall airs Thursday at 6pm ET on SiriusXM Insight with replays on Saturday at 4pm ET and Sunday at 6am ET.